When The Guardian in U.K. and Washington Post in U.S. first unveiled the nefarious NSA PRISM surveillance program, the agency as well as the government tried to actively deny the allegations made. Now, Washington Post have revealed even more slides from the program, divulging the exact levels of scrutiny undertaken in PRISM.
We reported earlier that although the government has claimed that NSA’s PRISM program falls within the legality of FISA courts, there are so many exceptions to the dubious FISA regulations that the agency can easily exploit them to its own profit. Apparently, judges in FISA courts are aware of it but tend to ignore this, on the pretext of national security.
The new leaked slides from Washington Post detail out the exact levels of scrutiny that are observed during the process of wiretapping. Interestingly, during all the diligence of following these different levels, NSA and FBI observe FISA regulations, which hints at how wide is the freedom offered by these regulations.
Apparently, before going into deeper investigation of particular individuals, the NSA personnel consult their superiors in order to make sure that the person in question is not a U.S. national. To determine whether or not a given person is a U.S. individual, these personnel need a ’51-percent confidence’ which is a fairly shady term.
In the ‘tasking process’, the personnel then tap into the servers of such companies which are participating in the program. This bit of information again hints that there are such companies which are voluntarily taking part in the PRISM program.
Source: Washington Post
Courtesy: Engadget
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